Crash Course

For those of you who may be unaware of the process, here is a very simple crash course on our adoption journey:

In January/February of 2005 we submitted an application to our agency. After our acceptance we started the long process of compiling paperwork for our dossier. The dossier is made up of many items including: physicals, state and federal background checks, birth certificates, marriage certificates, financial information, sessions with a social worker, home inspections, etc. Each piece of paper has to be notarized, certified by the state and authenticated by the consulate. We then made an appointment with the USCIS to get fingerprinted and to receive a form called the I-171H. The I-171H basically is a sheet of paper that gives us permission to adopt internationally and to bring her back to the US. After our dossier was completed our agency translated it and sent it to China. When our dossier arrived in China it was given a log in date (LID). Our LID is October 27, 2005.

Once a dossier goes to China, it sits and waits...and waits. Then, it goes to the Review Room where it waits a bit longer. While in the Review Room, the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) reviews the dossiers and makes sure that we have all of our paperwork in order; everything is signed properly, we have all the proper seals of approval and there are no red flags that would make them think that we would not be fit as parents. In late June of 2006 we made it through the Review Room. We were them moved to the Matching Room.

Once a file arrives in the Matching Room, the CCAA goes through a process in which they match a child with their parent(s). The order in which they match follows the LID or the order in which the file came in to the Matching Room. About once a month, the CCAA will send the matched files back to the agencies (also called the referrals). Each month they announce the last date they matched. By tracking how many files the CCAA process a month, families waiting to adopt can "predict" how fast/slow they are moving and how close they are to reaching their LID.

When we started the adoption process, the CCAA was taking about 6-8 months to match a family. As of today, we have waited over 16 months. Last year there was a major slow down in how many files the CCAA matched each month. Instead of processing close to 30 days worth of LIDs in a month....they slowed down to nine, seven or even five days one month. In recent months they have started to speed up a bit and have done between 12-19 days in a batch.

Obviously there is much more detail to each of these steps and we by no means want to trivialize the process. But, this will give you a brief overview of where we have been on our journey thus far.